Ein amerikanischer Humorist -- translation-TEST-page 2 of 9
Die Grenzboten 33 (1874) 2. Semester, 2. Band, 306-314. Page 307. [SUB Bremen] [MDZ] | German transcription.
(Mark Twain.)
The recent American elections are proof of the strength of this opposition. People who have lived over there for a long time strongly deny that the victory in the last elections was won by the "Democrats", i.e. that political party which was defeated in the War of Secession and which was generally regarded by us Germans as the "reactionaire". Rather, the opposition of the honest people against the corruption of that administration, which abused the popularity of Grant's name and his forbearance against political party comrades, has won the victory, and has now gained the majority in Congress, a minority bordering on majority in the Senate. This is how the last election result is judged by the American press of all colors. Only a later time will judge what part in this deep change, the fruitful and significant consequences of which cannot yet even be overlooked, was played by that saucy humorist who unsparingly castigated the rotten conditions of his fatherland with the sharpest mockery and thus for the time being got all the laughs on his side, until the seriousness of political activity in meetings, pamphlets and press articles drew the opposition of honest people into the same camp.
For those who have read his later works, Mark Twain's powerful talent for political satire is already evident in the present selection of his writings, and our readers shall receive some tasty samples of it later. But on the whole, the humor here is still an end in itself; or, if you will, a necessary natural consequence of the writer's world view. . . . [tbc]
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